skosko

We are going to visit Paris but want to stay in a small village/town outside of Paris. Any suggestions where we should stay that would be easily accesible to CDG and Paris by train?

Togo

Perhaps, Senlis...

Londonres

I once stayed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and travelled in on the RER train. It's now a smart suburb of Paris, but it still has it's own identity and royal chateau.

http://www.ot-saintgermainenlaye.fr/

Pvoyageuse

Fontainebleau is nice and has an interesting castle to visit. You can take the RER to Paris - Gare de Lyon.

ira

Hi sk,

Are you sure about this?

One of the nicest things about Paris, is the night.

What will you do if you get tired of walking around and want to go back to the hotel for a rest and freshen up?

skosko

Thanks everyone. All the suggestions are very helpful and now it gives me a place to start.

Ira - we are hoping the hotel prices will be a little bit less in an outlying area. Am I wrong? We also prefer to stay in a smaller town atmosphere than a large metropolis. If you have any other suggestions or recommendations please let me know. Thanks for your help.

jo_ann

We've made 7 trips to Paris, and I'd agree with Ira - one of the wonderful parts is walking back through the city at night to our hotel or wherever.

If price is your issue, have you considered renting an apartment? On our most recent trip, we rented an apartment in the Marais (now our most favorite part of the city) - I found it on VRBO.com, and it was very true to its descriptions. There are many posts here about particular units, and you can choose the size you need. we saved enormously over the hotel we've always favored; we really enjoyed the huge Sunday morning market 2 blocks up from us at Bastille; we headed out each morning to one of the numerous small bakeries and had breakfast in - croissant, good coffee, wonderful melon. We ate some lunches and one dinner in - yet still got to know the neighborhood shop keepers, etc, as we'd pick up those small items that we needed each day.
I think what it showed us is something we've always thought anyway: Paris is a an amazing city made up of all these delightful neighborhoods, and that its residents are delightful and not homogeneous.
Personally, we'd never want to start and end each day climbing onto the mass transit to get to a particular, isolated part of the city, then exiting it. I don't think that you can enjoy the flavor of any city doing that - you just pick up the history or beauty of that one monument or whatever.
But, then - we love Paris!!
Hope that helps.
Jo Ann

kerouac

I can't imagine why anybody who wants to visit Paris would subject themselves to the inconvenience of staying in a village. Villages are never convenient to anything, unless you will be driving a car all the time. To each his own.

JulieVikmanis

Much as we now love Paris (have visited it more than any other city), our first stop there in 1973 wasn't a happy one and I vowed we'd not enter again. We stayed in St. Germain and visited places in the Ile de France and would look out at the lights at night but didn't go back for some time. We found St. Germaine a perfectly lovely French city to base out of and if you have some apprehensions about spending "too much time in Paris" I'd say St. Germain is just the ticket. You'll be able to get in and out of the city easily by RER but you'll be in a relatively quieter (though charming and pretty upscale) place.

We stayed at the Hermitage des Loges which requires a bit of a walk to the RER and the chateaux but is certainly doable. I just checked their website and it appears that they have rooms for between 82 and 115 euros, which is pretty reasonable.

Christina

I don't think your ideas really pan out. Have you ever stayed in a small town or village right next to a capital city with a population of a couple million people? The problem is the metropolitan areas around such cities go for miles and you are really in boring suburbs, often. Also, you probably will not save any money by doing that as there are hotels in all price ranges in Paris, and so much more choice and price competition than in a small village.

It will cost you to go to/from Paris everyday, and aside from that take a lot of time. This is like going on vacation but being a commuter like on a job and spending hours a day going to/from the city.

St Germain en Laye isn't a bad idea in that at least it is on the RER and if you really want an easy trip, you should choose something on the RER line. Otherwise, it will be too much trouble trying to work out the train schedules and lines. I wouldn't exactly call that a village nor cheap, though.

How much are you expecting to spend on a hotel that you think this will make it worthwhile? Because staying in places like Versailles, St Germain en Laye, etc., aren't in themselves necessarily cheaper (I don't think Fontainebleau is a cheap place, either, but I could be wrong). Whatever places I can think of, I know you could just as easily get a hotel that cheap in Paris for the same quality (or better).

Michel_Paris

Might help to post a budget.

Last time I stayed away from the centre of the city (16th) and enjoyed being in an area where it was locals only, in order to get a feel for local life. But I did have to Metro to get where the sites were, and time was added to my day if I needed to go back to hotel to drop off items, rest the doggies, and then head out again. For a couple of nights I ate local to avoid more travel.

If you do indeed stay way out, you are possibly removing the possibility of doing a hotel return before heading back to city for night time acitvities.

I'd do it the other way around, what is your budget, try to find something close, then...move out. There is quite a range or prices within the city limits...and a rental could be even more frugal.

Cowboy1968

You will find inexpensive hotels already at the Périphérique. And thus still connected by Métro.

You can start looking at www.accor.com, and check the location of the less expensive chains.

skosko

We are now convinced to stay in Paris. Thank you everyone. You have given us some great places to start looking; we like the rental idea.